TINGVISHED 


DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN ARTISTS 


JOHN SINGER SARGENT 


JOHN SINGER SARGENT 


DISTINGUISHED 
AMERICAN ARTISTS 


ko) Fl IN 
SINGER 
pe G BN I 


Compiled by 
NATHANIEL 
POUSETTE-DART 


With an introduction by 
Lee Woodward Zeigler 


NEW YORK 
PRIDE RICK A, STOKES COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS 


Copyright, 1924, by 
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY 


All Rights Reserved 


Printed in the United States of America 


JOHN SINGER SARGENT 


F John Singer Sargent it has been said that though 
born abroad, (in Florence, in 1856, the son of a 
practicing physician,) he displays all the charac- 
teristics of an American in his art. It might be as truth- 
fully said, perhaps, that of all painters he is the most 
characteristically American. Whether he owes to his 
Yankee forbears his keen objective vision, the variety and 
elasticity of his invention, and the expertness of his hand, 
natural gifts upon which he has built a technique of 
acknowledged mastery, is a question into which we need 
not enter. 

Certain it is that whatever he may have got from his 
teachers, his early study under Carolos Duran, and later 
the influence of Hals and Velasquez, that technique, as 
sound as it is facile, is all his own, and to those who have 
watched his progress through his long series of triumphs 
in the realm of portraiture, is the result of his own indus- 
try, and the development of his own strong individuality. 

In this day when tricks and fads prevail to such an 
extent as to have acquired respectability, he seems to rely 
upon a skill of hand that has developed as unconsciously 
as one’s handwriting. Brilliant as the handling is, it 
appears entirely unselfconscious, the servant of a desire, 
in his own phrase, to paint what he sees. And in the 
result we are made aware of the beauty of what he sees, 
while composition, arrangement of masses and emphasis 
upon line and form are apparently as unstudied as the 
brush work. 

Vii 


Apparently; for it cannot be doubted that he has taken 
much thought of these things. For Sargent is a supreme 
stylist, though the style is as that of a speaker to whom 
through long habit in the selection of words that convey 
just the right shade of meaning, as well as of images that 
nicely express his thought, it has become impossible to 
say anything other than beautifully and well. 

Nor is it a superficial kind of beauty. He is one who 
has gazed not unsympathetically upon the pageant of life, 
and as we study the long series of “counterfeit present- 
ments” of humanity, it is impossible not to realize that he 
has in most cases reacted very sensitively to his sitter’s 
personality, enchanting us now with the witchery of his 
rendering of some young girl’s fragile loveliness, as in the 
charming ““The Three Misses Hunter” and “The Ladies 
Alexander,” now sobering our mood with his sympathetic 
portrayal of some sedate and dignified matron, or the 
virile presentation of some fine type of vigorous manhood, 
as in his ““Major Higginson,” (one of his most profound 
characterizations,) the soldierly head of General Wood, 
or his portrait of John Hay. 

It is said that Vandyke had models with beautiful hands 
who sat for the hands of his portraits, and it is a well- 
known custom of some portrait painters in active practice 
to have models sit for the clothes. It is impossible to 
think of Sargent using either of these devices. His hands 
are as authentic as his faces. Study Homer Saint Gaudens’ 
hands, for instance, or those of “Mrs. Iselin,’ where the 
nicety of his observation is shown in the pressure of the 
fingers on the table’s edge, or the clasped hands of “Mrs. 
Edward Davis and Her Son.” And his clothes! No one 
but the original owner could wear them with such ease 
and naturalness, with the degree of conscious unconscious- 

Vill 


ness proper to good breeding. In fact, it might be said 
that Sargent is rather fond of clothes, so successful has he 
been where many fail, or at least accepts them without 
reserve, as part of his sitters’ individuality, and necessary 
to its interpretation, even rendering an ugly fashion faith- 
fully, and with a kind of grace. 

While one feels this interest in his fellow beings as an 
essential part of his art, he is not a psychologist in the 
sense of bending the outward semblance to some precon- 
ception of the sitter, or with some uncanny power of 
searching the hidden recesses of his soul, but simply by 
the ability to see what the untrained eye passes over, the 
unavoidable traces of that soul’s development in brow and 
nose, in cheek and chin and mouth and eye, seen in terms 
of anatomical structure as light reveals it and expressed 
by a high light here, a line or depression there. 

‘This is true also of his landscapes and glimpses of old- 
world architecture, streets and court-yards. Nowhere is 
the effort to render a mood of nature, but always sense 
of light and space and sound construction. Done in 
holiday vein, as it seems they for the most part are, never- 
theless they are true portraits of place and _ incident, 
painted with the same objective vision, which, if it does 
not see below the surface, sees and preserves all that is 
recorded there. 

Here it is that the essential joyousness of the art, 
founded as it is on health and sanity, reveals itself. The 
plash of a fountain, the glow of the southern sun on some 
rococo cathedral front, the checkered play of light in some 
meadow nook, all bespeak the robust, joyous temperament, 
and even occasionally humor, as, for instance, in “His 
Studio.” 

But this is not all. The estimate of our painter as a 

1x 


mere recorder of the obvious, however masterful, the 
clever portrayor of his kind, however sympathetic, needed 
revision, when, on the completion of the Boston Public 
Library, his Prophets were put in place. At one large 
stride the portrait painter took front rank in the peculiar 
and exacting field of mural decoration. Lacking nothing 
of his wonted strength of characterization, even to the 
point of dramatic power, the great canvas is painted with 
a suavity that he has never excelled in any portrait, and 
covered with an ease that could not be greater if its 
dimensions had been in inches instead of feet. 

And in spite of the compelling interest in the figures, 
it is first of all, and in the best sense, decorative. 

Since then one great mural painting has followed an- 
other. From what secret spring the inspiration for these 
great works has come, or why it lay dormant all the years, 
which it seems almost must be regarded as years of appren- 
ticeship, or how, with that spring bubbling beneath, he 
could yet hold his attention fixed upon the problem in 
hand, how have patience to give his time te making “like- 
nesses” of his fellow mortals, (indeed, it seems as though 
that patience has at length given out, for it is understood 
that he has announced that he will make no more,) is 
the master’s secret. We cannot know. It is idle to 
speculate, just as it is idle to speculate whether, if instead 
of his fortunate early surroundings and advantages and 
his happy contacts (which might have spoiled a lessei 
man), he had had to endure the poverty and limitations 
of, say, a Millet, his art would have had a deeper, pro- 
founder meaning, a greater scope, or, as has been the case 
with so many, have perished in the bud. We must take our 
Sargent as we find him, as something to be grateful for. 

LEE Woopwarp ZEIGLER. 
x 


The sixty-four paintings herein reproduced illustrate 
the varied characteristics of this artist's work. 


THe Misses HUNTER 
Courtesy William Heinemann, London 


uopuoT “uUuvimauiayy wmoyyiyy, Xsajsnoy) 
YOIWAINT NVILUNAA VW 


2 
Hgyoe 
a) 


arseeane 


PorTRAIT OF Miss ADA REHAN 
Owned by Mrs. G. M. Whitin 


Portrait OF Mrs. KATE A. Moore 
Courtesy M. Knoedler & Co. 


COUNTESS OF WARWICK AND SON 
Owned by the Worcester Art Museum 


THE Lapies ALEXANDRA, MARY AND THEO ACHESON 
Courtesy William Heinemann, London 


07 | 49/poouy “We tsaqsnoy 
unjosvy ‘d “H %q paumo 
SYAHOLANS AHL 


THE FOUNTAIN 
Owned by the Art Institute of Chicago 
Courtesy M. Knoedler & Co. 


THE CHESS PLAYERS 
Courtesy Grand Central Art Galleries 


UnISn A WYyoUUuIIULD JY, XQ paUuMm_ 
ONIHSI, STYIN) OMI 


CARNATION, Lity, Lity, RoskE 
Courtesy William Heinemann, London 


PoRTRAIT OF A GIRL IN WHITE MUSLIN 


Miss Austruthery Thomson 
Cc. 


Courtesy M. Knoedler & Co. 


EGYPTIAN GIRL 
Courtesy William Heinemann, London 


CAPRI GIRL 


ll 


London 


a 


memann 


am He 


1 


i 


ourtesy W 


G 


UuopuoT “uuvitauilayy Unypry, sazanoy7 
AIUPAD®) “ff “SAP 
oFIv{ HY 


"09 & 4a[paouy “W fsajsnoy 
YOIWALNT NVILANAA 


0) @ 4aipaouy “PW tsazsnoy 
UDUNAADET “FT “AW ‘S4Y 0Q pauno 


aqavX 1uno0y) IH, 


‘0D & Asalpoouy “PF Xsaqzanoy 
‘DQ ‘qd ‘uowurysoyy “4p fo Ksayvy saad “woinquysuy uviuosyyuus 


SUMAVAM AH], 


‘0D @ 4ajpaouy “pW Csazinoy 
TOUAL AHL NI Wvadls LAOAL, V 


Tur HERMIT 


he Metropolitan 


of Art 


Museum 


ik 


ened by 


7 
C 


O 


0) & 4ajpaouy “Pp Csajanoyg saat : 
VauV‘) Ad OV] ‘OITINIA NVS ‘unosdvy NI Slvogq aauH L 


quUIDiDS sAaDWIS UYyor XQ paumga 
INTAALION NOOUY 


09 @& 4ajpaouy "Ww saysnoy 
TOUA TT, AHL NI G1OdddaTHS NIVINOOW V 


LANDSCAPE WITH GOATS 


f Art, Washington, D. C. 


Courtesy M. Knoedler & Co. 


Freer Gallery o 


itution, 


Inst 


Smithsonian 


TYROLESE INTERIOR 
Owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art 


CHILDREN or E. D. Borr 
Courtesy William Heinemann, London 


0) @ 4appaouy “Ww saqanoy 
‘2 ‘qd ‘uopbumysoy 
q4p fo K4a]]D5 saad q “UO1INJIYSUT UNIuOsSYyZUUNS Kq Paumo 
VIDS907 FHL NI LSVANVAIG 


THE CONFESSION 
Owned by Dr. Desmond FitzGerald 
Courtesy M. Knocdler & Co. 


FUMIE D’AMBRE GRIS 
Courtesy M. Knoedler & Co. 


LUXEMBURG GARDENS AT TWILIGHT 
Owned by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts 


uappoH “s4py &q paungd 
wnasnyy ukjyoorg ay} &Q paunoc 
adIM SIFT HLIM ONIHOLEANS ‘NATTA Invd ‘ISsILyy IHL 


uojsog ‘sj4p auig fo wnasnpy ay AQ paumgd 
OIGALS SIH 


‘0D & 4aspaouy “Py Ksajanoy 
IgJIWADG Saumve “Ay tq paumg 


NOLEWIS LV adVOSUNVW’T 


HEAD OF JOSEPH JEFFERSON 
Owned by John Singer Sargent 


CARMENCITA 
Courtesy William Heinemann, London 


5 
4 
* 
.Y 
BS 
* 
‘ 


Miss ELLEN Terry AS Lapy Macseru 
Courtesy William Heinemann, London 


ITALIAN WITH ROPE 
Courtesy William Heinemann, London 


BEDOUIN ARAB 
Courtesy William Heinemann, London 


GITANA 
Owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art 


JoHANNES WOLFF 
Courtesy William Heinemann, London 


EGYPTIAN WoMAN 
(Coin Necklace) 
Courtesy William Heinemann, London 


GEORGE HENSCHEL 
Courtesy William Heinemann, London 


GENERAL Sir [AN HAMILTON 
(Full Length) 
Courtesy Wilham Heinemann, London 


THE SuLPHUR MATCH 
Owned by Mr. Louis Curtts 


© Detroit Publishing Co. 


Portrait oF Mr. AND Mrs. FIELD 
Owned by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts 


q4py fO Unasnyy uvdziyodosjayy ayz fq paumo 
ONVILSVEAS FdaV 


Henry G. MARQUAND 
Owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art 


CovENTRY PATMORE 
Courtesy William Heinemann, London 


PoRTRAIT OF MME. ERRAZURIZ 
Courtesy Kirkman & Hall, New York 


SKETCH oF Mrs, Aucustus HEMENWAY 
Owned by Mrs. Hemenway 


Lavy HAMILTON 
Courtesy William Heinemann, London 


WILLIAM M. CHASE 
Owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art 


MADAME X PortTRAIT MME. GRAUTREAU 
Owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art 


PortraAir oF Mrs. CHARLES E. INCHES 
Owned by Mrs. Inches, Boston 


PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT 
Courtesy William Heinemann, London 


Lorp RIBBLESDALE 
Courtesy William Heinemann, London 


PorTRAIT OF EX-PRESIDENT CHARLES W, ELtor, 


FORMERLY OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
Owned by Harvard University 


PorTRAIT OF EDWARD RoBINsoN, Eso. 
Owned by Mr. Robinson 


Mrs. MARQUAND 
Courtesy William Heinemann, London 


THe Lapy WITH THE ROSE 
Owned by Mrs. Hadden 


ASHER WERTHEIMER 
Courtesy William Heinemann, London 


PorRTRAIT OF MAjor HIGGINSON 
Owned by Harvard University 


W. GRAHAM RoBERTSON 
Courtesy William Heinemann, London 


DUCHESS OF PORTLAND 
Courtesy William Heinemann, London 


1° 


SARGENT, JOHN SrNGER, born, Florence, Italy, of American 
parents, January 12, 1856. Pupil of Academy of Fine 
Arts, Florence; Carolus Duran in Paris. 


MEMBER OF 


AssociaTE, NATIONAL ACADEMY OF Desicn, New York, 1891. 

NaTIONAL ACADEMY OF DesiGN, New York (Academicians) 
1897. 

NATIONAL SocieTy OF Murat PAINTerRs, New York. 

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PORTRAIT PAINTERS, New York. 

CopLey Society oF Bosron—Honorary Member. 

AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS—Honorary Member. 

Paris SOCIETY OF AMERICAN ARTISTS. 

SocieTY NATIONAL DES BEAUx-Arts, Paris. 

RoyAL ACADEMY, London. 

CENTURY ASSOCIATION, New York. 

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND LETTERS. 

PHILADELPHIA WATER CoLor CLuB—Honorary Member. 

BERLIN ACADEMY. 

INSTITUTE DE FRANCE, 1905. 


AWARDS 


b] 


Honorable mention, Paris, Salon, 1878. 

Second Class Medal, Paris Salon, 1881. 

Medal of Honor, Paris Exposition, 1889. 

Medal, Philadelphia Art Club, 1890. 

Medal, Columbia Exposition, Chicago, 1893. 

Temple Gold Medal, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 
1894. 

Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, France, 1889; Officer, 1897. 

Medal of Honor, Paris Exposition, 1900. 

Gold Medal, Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, 1gor. 

Converse Gold Medal, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 


1903. 
Large Gold Medal, Berlin, 1903. 
Grand Prize, St. Louis Exposition, 1904. 
Gold Medal of Honor, Liége Exposition, 1905. 
Gold Medal, Venice, 1907. 
Beck Gold Medal, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1909. 
Order of Merit, Germany, 1909. 
Gold Medal of Honor, National Institute of Arts and Letters, 


1914. 


REPRESENTED IN 


ArT ASSOCIATION, INDIANAPOLIS. 

ArT INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO. 

Boston MUSEUM. 

Boston Pus ic LIBRARY. 

BROOKLYN INSTITUTE MUSEUM. 

BUFFALO FINE ARTS ACADEMY. 

CORCORAN GALLERY, WASHINGTON, D. C. 
FINE ARTS ACADEMY, BUFFALO. 

LUXEMBOURG MUSEUM, PArIs. 

METROPOLITAN MuseuM, NEw York. 
MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ART, MINNEAPOLIS. 
NATIONAL GALLERY, WASHINGTON. 
PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS, PHILADELPHIA. 
TATE GALLERY, LONDON. 

UFFIZI GALLERY, FLORENCE. 

WorcesTER (Mass.) ArT MUSEUM. 


PUBLISHED MATTE 


American Magazine of Art, New York, 1917, vol. 8, pp. 129-136, 
8°. The Sargent Decorations in the Boston Public Library. 
—Frederick W. Coburn. 

American Magazine of Art, Washington, D. C., 1921, vol. 12, 
pp. 401-407, illus., 8°. John Sargent’s Decorations in the 
Rotunda of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.—Jean N. 
Oliver. 

American Magazine of Art, Washington, 1923, vol. 14, pp. 3-6, 
illus., 8°. Sargent’s War Epic.—Frederick W. Coburn.. 
American Magazine of Art, Washington, 1924, vol. 15, pp. 169- 
190, illus., ports., 4°. The Sargent Exhibition, Grand Cen- 

tral Art Galleries, New York.—Leila Mechlin. 

Architect, London, 1922, f.°, vol. 108, July 14, pp. 27-30. The 
Sargent Decorations in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.— 
C.H. Blackall’ 

Art and Decorations, New York, 1917, f.°, vol. 7, pp. 194-197. 
Sargent, Boston and Art.—Forbes Watson. 

Arts, New York, 1924, vol. 5, pp. 145-150, ports., 4°. John 
Singer Sargent.—Forbes Watson, : 


Augusta, Buenos Aires, 1919, f.°, vol. 3, pp. 276-284, illus. Sar- 
gent y su obra.—Ch. Meynell. 

The Baker & Taylor Company, New York, 1908, xii, 270 p., col. 
front., plates (1 col.), ports. (2 col.), 27%2 em. Modern 
Artists.—Christian Brinton. 

Century Magazine, vol. 66, pp. 129-134. Sargent’s “Redemp- 
tion” in the Boston Public Library.—Sylvester Baxter. 
Dodd, Mead & Company, New York, 1923, xv p., 1 1., 417 [1] p., 
front., plates, ports. Famous Painters of America.—Joseph 

Walker Spadden. 

Harper & Brothers, 1893, 1916, 4 pl., 175 p., front., plates, ports., 
15% em. Sargent.—Henry James. 

William Heinemann, London, 1903, 12 1., 62 pl., sq. f. The 
Work of John S. Sargent, R. A. With an introductory note 
by Mrs. Meynell.—John Singer Sargent. 

International Studio, New York, 1900, vol. 10, pp. 3-21, 107-110, 
4°. The Art of J. S. Sargent, R. A—A. L. Baldry. 

T. C. & E. C. Jack, London; F. A. Stokes Company, New York, 
1909, Vii, 9-80 p., illus., 2 col. pl., 6 col. port. (incl. front.), 
Masterpieces in Color. Sargent—T. Martin Wood. Illus- 
trated with eight reproductions in color. 

lohns Hopkins Alumni Magazine, Baltimore, 1913, vol. 11, pp. 
23-26, 8°. The Doctors [Sargent’s Portrait-group of Drs. 
Halstead, Kelly, Osler and Welch]. 

' Kunst f. Alle, Miinchen, 1907, Jahrg. 23, pp. 25-33. John Singer 
Sargent.—Arthur Layard. 

Kunst u. Kunsthandwerk, Wein, 1905, Jahrg. 8, pp. 97-107. 
John Sargent und Seine Kunst.—P. G. Konody. 

L’art et les artistes, Paris, 1906-07, vol. 4, pp. 369-79. John 
Sargent.—Camille Marcel. 

Little, Brown & Co., Boston, 1900, 172 p., 16°. Twelve Great 
Artists—William Howe Downess. 

Magazine of Art, London, 1899, pp. 112-119, 4°. John S. Sar- 
gent as a Portrait Painter—Marion Hepworth Dixon. 
The Merrymount Press, Boston, 1899, 2 pl., 17 p., 8°. Cata- 
logue of Paintings and Sketches by John S. Sargent at 

Boston. 

Museum of Fine Arts, Bulletin, Boston, 1921, vol. 19, pp. 66-71, 
illus. Decorations of the Dome of the Rotunda by John 
Singer Sargent. 


Revue de l’art, Paris, 1923, f.°, vol. 44, pp. 142-155, illus. Une 
exposition d’art américain.—André Debarrois. 

Scribner's Magazine, New York, 1903, vol. 34, pp. 515-532. 
John S. Sargent.—Royal Cortissoz. 

Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1913, viii, 445 p., 8°. Art 
and Common Sense.—Royal Cortissoz. 

Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1919, x, 270 p., 24 pl., 8°. 
American Painting and Its Traditions—John Charles Van 
Dyke. 

W orld’s Work, London, 1903, vol. 3, pp. 25-39, fully illustrated. 
John S. Sargent.—Mrs. Alice Meynell. 

World’s Work, vol. 7, pp. 4099-4116. John S. Sargent, the 
Greatest Contemporary Portrait Painter.—Charles H. Cofhn. 


